denote: A star shell bursts above us.]

Suddenly the shell burst above us, and it was more brilliant than day.
Frightened! Say, that light is so great and the knowledge that if the
Germans spot you you're a goner, makes you just lie there and forget to
breathe! It does not take many seconds for a star shell to die away to a
glow, but in those seconds you go right through life and back to the
present. When the light was gone I lay there fairly panting for breath.

"We'll have to work quickly," came the inspiring voice at my elbow, and
we did. We had not finished work before a new star shell was sent up.

[Sidenote: The repair work is finished.]

The repair work did not take many minutes, and we started back again. We
were halted several times by star shells, and after the second or third
time I began to reassure myself by saying that the Germans did not know
I was out there, that they had nothing against me individually.
Afterwards I heard one of the officers say that they were probably
suspicious because of the sudden cessation of the gun fire that
afternoon, and were looking for a raiding party to cross no-man's-land.

[Sidenote: The noise of the shells.]

During the time that I was at the front, it was the custom for men to
spend six days at the front, then go back to the village in which they
were billeted--always well beyond the firing line--and there rest for
about two weeks. By the end of my third day I had become quite
acclimated to the noise. One afternoon a scouting aeroplane must have
reported some fancied movement of troops in a village two or three miles
back of us, for the Germans started a heavy barrage which went singing
over our heads. The shells went high, but just the same they made
everyone uncomfortable for a few minutes. Fellows that have been on the
line, however, will tell you that you don't mind the noise of shell
fire--for you figure it out that the bullet that hits you is the bullet
you never hear--and while that doesn't seem a very comfortable thought,
you soon forget to think of danger.

[Sidenote: Shifting the gun's position.]

Perhaps the most exciting incident, and at the same time the one that
sent more terror to our hearts than any other, occurred late one
afternoon. It was foggy, though fog always hung over our battery--in
fact, the climate of the front that has been assigned to our troops is
notorious for its winter fogginess. Orders had been sent out to shift
the position of o